Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Argentina, Part III

And the adventures continue... Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Sunday as we left the hostel we walked by what used to be Borges' house (see me pointing to the plaque indicating the literary importance of the place, photo on the left). That was on our way to Caminitos where we walked around the markets (packed with tourists), saw what the right way to dance Tango on the streets is (see second photo on left for a still-demo), and take pictures of the famously colourful houses. And I bought my first work of art ever! In retrospect, I should've bought two. Live and learn! We also saw the famous Bombonera stadium (on one side it has rooms and balconies - like an integrated hotel! madness. football really is the opium of the masses!). In the afternoon we headed to the Recoleta Cementary but it started raining, so we veered left and went into the ginormous movie theater next door. The third picture down on the left is Mauri uber ready to go to the movies, teehee. Saw the movie about the brother and sister killed during the Second World War for their counter nazisistic (is that even a word?!) activities. Then, as everyone left feeling unsatisfied, we felt the need to try again. This time we saw "The Illusionist". We all thought we were seeing the movie about two magicians facing off but it turns out we saw the movie where Edward Norton is a magician in love with a woman in a higher social class than he. Not bad, entertaining and unexpected! And yeah, we never made it to the cementary, oops.

That said, one thing I forgot to mention was that we DID go to an Art Museum during the weekend, so my BA experience was not cultureless. In any case, I intend on going back, and then I'll make sure I hit up a few more tourist "musts".Last but not least, Monday we had time to squeeze in lunch with Yaz (most disappointing pseudo mozzarella salad EVER, haha - just look at her face on the picture bottom left!) on a nifty rooftop terrace across from our hostel, and then it was time to head to the airport (no way was I going through a second 30+ busride in a week!). Doesn't sound like much for a Monday, but that's because in the morning we were busy running around to get medication unavailable in Bolivia for kids in the Oncology ward of the La Paz Children's Hospital... What a vacation!

Buenos Aires is a fantabulous place, the perfect mix of Europe and South America. Delicious meat, wonderful wines, fun people - it definitely makes my top ten. Hanging out with Yaz and her studyabroadites was excellent, what a crowd of crazies! I loved it. Thank you Yaz for showing me such a great time, and thank you Mauri for tagging along.